Musk booed at Chappelle-Rock show in S.F.
Dave Chappelle’s show at San Francisco’s Chase Center on Sunday ended with a surprise that sparked boos from the crowd as the controversial comedian pulled one last stunt: Inviting Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk to the stage.
In a killer double-bill that included comedian Chris Rock, the duo addressed the infamous Will Smith Oscar slap, cancel culture and Bay Area politics (homelessness, the opioid crisis) to plenty of laughs and cheers. It wasn’t until Chappelle brought out Musk that the arena crowd of about 18,000 appeared divided.
“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” Chappelle said toward the end of the roughly three-hour show.
Greeted by plenty of boos — and some cheers — Musk, who wore a Twitter T-shirt and what looked like a Twitter work badge dangling from his front pocket, stood by awkwardly but with a wide smile.
“It sounds like some of them people you fired are in the audience,” Chappelle said, referring to how Musk, after purchasing the San Francisco social media company in late October for $44 billion, quickly laid off as many as half of the company’s 7,500 employees.
In a video by an attendee now removed from Twitter but reposted on YouTube (cell phones and smartwatches were required to be locked up in Yondr pouches prior to entry), Chappelle could be seen bantering with the audience while Musk stood nearby.
“Dave, what should I say?” Musk asked while the boos continued.
“Don’t say nothing. It’ll only spoil the moment,” Chappelle replied.
But during his brief appearance, Chappelle did have Musk scream “I’m rich, bitch!” — a callback to his “Chappelle’s Show” skit where the comedian impersonates funk master Rick James.
“Times like this, I think we’re in a simulation,” Musk said. “Like, how can this be real?”
He then added, “Thanks for letting me on stage.”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this opportunity,” Chappelle replied. “The first comedy club on Mars, that should be mine. A deal is a deal, Musk.”
By early the next morning, the SpaceX founder responded via Twitter, noting that getting booed on stage was “a first for me in real life.” He even attempted to clarify that “it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods) ... ”
Indeed, audience members expressed mixed reactions to Musk’s appearance. Since taking over the social media company, Musk has fired moderation teams and rolled back many of the rules previously in place that were meant to combat misinformation. He has also welcomed back many divisive figures who were previously barred from the service, including former President Donald Trump and rapper Kanye West. Musk also scrapped Twitter’s enforcement policy against COVID-19 falsehoods.
“My jaw dropped,” Ashley Sison-Seaman, 35, of Mountain View told The Chronicle as she walked through the Thrive City campus after the show. “I just heard a lot of boos, then a whole lot of cheers. … That was ballsy for Dave Chappelle to do for sure.”
Chappelle fans know his comedy shows are full of surprises. But the estimated 18,000 who packed the arena on Sunday didn’t seem totally prepared for the kind of jokes — and controversy — Chappelle and Rock had in store.
“We’re trying to do the show tonight without offending anyone. We’ll try, because you never know who might be triggered. … You gotta say the right thing or the Woke Police might get you,” Rock said at the start of his set, clarifying that it’s really “selective outrage” that he’s against.
Had Chappelle not brought out Musk, the biggest buzz of the evening would have centered on Rock’s comments about Smith.
“People (were) like, ‘Did it hurt?’ You goddamn right it hurt. Me and Will Smith are not the same size,” Rock said after less than 30 minutes onstage. “He played Muhammad Ali; I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City.’ You’re goddamn right it hurt.”
Rock, who noted that people like Smith with “selective outrage” are the problem, then went on to summarize the drama that had been made public before Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, appeared at the Academy Awards show. Pinkett Smith had admitted to having an affair with their son’s friend, singer August Alsina, but Smith slapped Rock because of a joke the show presenter made about Pinkett Smith’s bald head. It has been widely reported that Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, which causes hair loss.
Rock didn’t dwell on the incident too long, but it was a moment many fans in the audience were waiting for — and he didn’t disappoint.
“I expected him to bring that up, and he did it in a way that was very, just very natural,” Sison-Seaman said. “He did it in a very classy way, in my opinion.”
That was about as classy as the night was going to be.
“Oh, we goin’ there tonight,” Rock said.
No ethnic or cultural group was spared by the two comedians — who often made callbacks to past controversial jokes about Jewish, LGBTQ+, Asian American Pacific Islander and other marginalized communities — and it seemed no topic was taboo.
When Chappelle addressed the night he was attacked in May by an audience member during a standup performance at the Hollywood Bowl, he acknowledged the backlash he received after his comments about transgender people in his 2021 Netflix comedy special, “The Closer.”
“Do not believe that for a second everyone from that community hates me. … There is no way that (the trans) community is doing all this to me. It’s gotta be the Jews,” he said, doubling down on the controversial monologue he gave as host of “Saturday Night Live” last month, which some critics deemed antisemitic.